Last night’s AEW Dynamite Grand Slam saw The Acclaimed finally capture the AEW World Tag Team Championships from Keith Lee and Swerve Strickland to a thunderous ovation from the New York crowd. Whilst the AEW faithful have certainly rallied behind The Acclaimed over the past few weeks, FTR’s lack of an AEW World Tag Team Championship opportunity has also caused quite the stir, with the Top Guys finding themselves at the top of the divisions rankings for some time now without receiving their shot.
AEW President Tony Khan sat down with The Rise Guys Morning Show ahead of last nights Grand Slam event, where he discussed FTR’s absence from the card, as well as claiming that the duo are on of his favourite tag teams of all time.
“I love them too, I think they’re both tremendous, I think they’re one of the greatest tag teams and nobodies a bigger fan than me in many ways. I mean, certainly, I’ve helped orchestrate a lot of these championships and want them to be a really prominent part of Pro-Wrestling, AEW and all of our great affiliations whether it’s Ring of Honor, New Japan Pro Wrestling, and, so, I’m a huge supporter and that would be a dream match. It’ll be really interesting to see what happens in the world tag team title match tomorrow night on TBS with Keith Lee and Swerve Strickland vs. The Acclaimed, who are the winningest tag team in AEW history, going up against the champions in a great rematch from our last pay-per-view, absolutely that was a classic and I think right now the tag team picture’s hotter than ever. Certainly, Ring of Honor, New Japan Pro Wrestling, Triple A, we’ve seen FTR have a lot of obligations, you know, as it stands, they’ve defended the titles in Ring of Honor, they’ve got big matches coming up in New Japan, they’re actually going to travel over to defend those New Japan IWGP World Heavyweight Tag Team Titles, so, they’re competing for a lot of companies, but absolutely, they’re one of the top teams in AEW.”
-Tony Khan
Khan continued, noting that whilst they have a number of obligations to fill due to holding three top tag team titles from across the wrestling world, he still believes that the pair would make for excellent AEW World Tag Team Champions.
“So, I do think right now as the Ring of Honor champions, New Japan IWGP World Heavyweight Tag Team Champions, AAA Lucha Libre, they certainly have a lot of obligations right now but they’d be great champions in AEW and they’re one of my favorite tag teams ever.”
-Tony Khan
Whilst FTR did not feature on last night’s show in an in-ring capacity, they did appear during a backstage segment to air their grievances at not receiving an opportunity at the AEW World Tag Team Championships, although the current ROH, IWGP, and AAA Tag Team Champions were cut of by the Gunn Club, likely delaying FTR’s title pursuit further.
Time will tell as to whether FTR will have the chance to add yet another set of tag titles to their collection. They’ve undoubtably been one of the best tag-teams of the year, and thus many fans believe that Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler deserve their chance sooner rather than later.
H/T to Bodyslam.net for the transcription.
